


Her Heart's Duet

by sunkelles



Series: Soulmates' Songs [1]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Aro Ace Dipper, Aro Dipper, Aromantic Asexual Dipper Pines, Canon Era, F/F, Femslash, Fluff, Humor, Kidfic, Sleepovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-11
Updated: 2015-09-11
Packaged: 2018-04-20 05:01:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4774466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunkelles/pseuds/sunkelles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In an alternate universe where you get songs stuck in your head when your soulmate does, Mabel Pines finds out her soulmate loves classical music. She sort of just runs with it from there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Her Heart's Duet

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [spice up your life!](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4717901) by [callunavulgari](https://archiveofourown.org/users/callunavulgari/pseuds/callunavulgari). 



> This is such a fluffy, weird mess, but I love it. 
> 
> Also, important plot detail. This diverges after "Sock Opera" so Northwest Manor Noir doesn't happen.

Mabel Pines spends a good percentage of her childhood waiting to hear her soulmate’s music in the back of her mind. When she is six, she learns about it from an animated movie about a prince and princess with lots of musical numbers and finding _true love._ She asks her mother all about it that night when she puts her to bed.

“Do you have a soulmate?” Mabel asks her.

“Yes,” her mother says, “your father and I are soulmates.”

“What’s it like?” Mabel asks.

“Annoying, sometimes,” Her mother tells her, “your father always gets that song from the gum commercials stuck in his head in the middle of the night.” Mabel giggles a little at that, and then forces her way onto her mom’s lap.

“What will it be like when I can hear my soulmate?” Mabel asks.

“If you have a soulmate,” her mother corrects.

“I do,” Mabel asserts, because she knows that she has someone that she’s meant to be with deep within her soul. She knows it the way she knows glitter is great and that she needs to do the right thing.

“When you hear your soulmate,” he mother acquiesces, “you might not know it for a little while. Their music might just slip in with yours, unnoticed for a while. But eventually, you’ll hear songs that you’ve never listened to playing in the back of your head. Then you’ll know, Mabel.”

“But how will I know who it is?” Mabel asks. This has always been the part that’s concerned her, because Mabel knows that she has a soulmate. She just doesn’t know how she’ll be able to find them.

“You could ask,” she says, and then she smiles softly, “that’s what your father did.” The next day, she tells Dipper all about how wonderful her soulmate will be, and how their songs will align when they meet and how fantastic it will all be. Dipper sends her a skeptical look, but doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t care much about the whole concept of soulmates.

 

 

Mabel Pines is ten when she first hears a song that her soulmate had stuck in their head. Mabel knows that it’s her soulmate’s. It has to be, because she’s never listened to classical music and she knows that she doesn’t know whatever obscure song is playing in the back of her mind. It’s a sweeping, classical piece on the violin, and Mabel thinks that it sounds like the beating of angel’s wings. She hums the tune to herself all day at school, just waiting to get home and tell her parents and Dipper and probably call up her grandma and her grandpa and her aunts and uncles and cousins and every friend that she’s ever made.

She tells Dipper first, because she sees him first and it seems like the right thing to do. She gives him two thumbs up and grins widely.

“Who has two thumbs and a soulmate?” she asks.

She doesn’t wait for him to respond before she says, “Me! Mabel!”

Dipper grins at her, and says, “Hey, looks like one of us has a soulmate.”  He’s sounds happy for her, and he doesn’t seem bitter that he hasn’t his yet, that he might not _have_ one. Dipper’s never been obsessed with having a soulmate. He’s never seemed to care much if he had one or not.

She bumps him on the shoulder, and then thinks about how fun it will be to tell everyone that she’s ever met about her newfound soulmate.

 

Her parents both seem happy, and so do her grandparents and her friends from school. She calls her aunt that lives in Alaska at what ends up being three o’clock in Anchorage, and she is significantly less happy than the rest of them.

 

Months pass, and Mabel becomes accustomed to sometimes hearing her soulmate’s classical music playing in the back of her head. It becomes a comforting presence, and reminds her that somewhere out there, she has a soulmate. Somewhere she has someone that she’s destined to love.

 

Mabel’s pretty sure that she must drive her soulmate crazy. She _always_ has a song stuck in her head, while her soulmate almost never does. Her soulmate only ever has some sort of classical song stuck in her head, while Mabel has everything from bad pop, to country, to rap, to the little ditties that she makes up for fun. Sometimes, in the middle of the night, she’ll get Part of Your World or the Duck-tective theme song stuck in her head.

 

She really hopes that her soulmate doesn’t decide that she hates her just from the songs she sends her way.

* * *

 

 

Gravity Falls is fun. Gravity Falls is also terrifying, and abnormal, but it’s fun. Mabel’s determined to at least try find her soulmate here. There’s a ton of cute people in Gravity Falls, and one of them is bound to be her soulmate. She just knows that she’ll find them soon.

She asks every person that she meets if they like classical music, and finds that most kids her age don’t. She guesses that will make it easier to find her soulmate, but it’s been frustrating to listen to every single person she’s talked to tell her no.

 

 

 

She meets a boy that she thinks might be a vampire named Norman, but finds that he doesn’t like classical music either. When she tries to politely end their relationship, he reveals himself to be a group of gnomes disguised as a person and tries to kidnap her.

 

Mabel’s really glad that one of the gnomes isn’t her soulmate.

 

 

 

She doesn’t think that Gideon Gleeful could be her soulmate, but she supposes that it can’t hurt to ask.

“Do you like classical music?” she asks.

“No,” he says, with that sweet, honeyed voice of his, “I’m more of a country fan, myself.”  Mabel almost sighs in relief.

 

By the time that Mabel learns more about Gideon, she becomes incredibly thankful that he didn’t like classical music.

 

 

 

The party comes, and Mabel finds out a lot of things. Neither Candy nor Grenda is her soulmate, though they seem like the best friends Mabel could ask for.

 

“Hi,” she says, hoping that her friendly attitude might calm the other girl’s snooty, mean one, “I’m Mabel.”

“That sounds like a fat, old lady’s name,” the girl says with a snooty little smile, and Mabel forces a smile. Apparently, the civil approach isn’t going to get her anywhere.

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” she says. She does not ask the girl if she likes classical music.

 

Pacifica beats her, and it feels like the world’s been turned on its edge. If Mabel can’t win a crown for her new friends, how great can she be? The night after the party at the Mystery Shack, her soulmate has “Don’t Start Unbelieving” playing in their head on repeat, and Mabel wonders how that could possibly be a coincidence. It sets her heart on fire, and gives her a little bit of hope. If her soulmate was at the party, then she’s bound to meet them soon enough. Things will have to start going her way.

 

 

 

She has other encounters with Pacifica, but none of them change anything. At least, until their golf war. After that, she saves Pacifica from being murdered and decides that her end of the rivalry isn’t worth maintaining. Pacifica’s almost pleasant to her afterwards. For a moment, Mabel considers asking if she likes classical music. She decides against it, though. Pacifica being less awful than she originally thought doesn’t make her Mabel’s soulmate.  

 

As the summer goes on, Mabel meets more and more people. Not one of them is her soulmate. Not a member of Sev’ral Timez, not Mermando, not Gabe Benson the puppet guy. Mabel almost gives up on finding them entirely.

 

* * *

 

About a week after what Mabel has dubbed “the Bipper incident”, Pacifica shows up at the door of the Mystery Shack, which is weird. Like really, really weird. Mabel opens up the door, and sees none other than Pacifica. She’s dressed like she’s undercover, like she doesn’t want anyone to recognize her.

“Uh,” Mabel says, “hello?”

“Uh, yeah,” Pacifica says, “hey Mabel.” They stand awkwardly for a moment on opposite sides of the doorway. Pacifica pushes up her large, dark sunglasses and looks Mabel in the eyes.

“Would you like to sleep over at the Manor?” Pacifica asks quickly. It almost sounds like Mabel when she’s talking really fast so Dipper won’t be able to process what she’s saying. She’s used to talking that fast, though, so she can process what Pacifica’s just said just fine. She just doesn’t understand _why_ she’s said it.

“You want me to sleep over at the Manor?” Mabel asks skeptically. Pacifica blushes bright red, and then looks towards the floor.

“Like, you know, a sleepover," she says, taking a deep breath, “Isn’t that what friends do?”  

“Yes,” Mabel says, feeling a sudden surge of affection for the other girl that she doesn’t really know what to do with, “it is.”

“So tomorrow at seven,” Pacifica says.

“Um, yes,” Mabel says. She supposes that it can’t hurt. It might even be fun.

“Alright,” Pacifica says, and then the girl puts her sunglasses back on and slinks off the porch. 

 

At dinner, Mabel decides to mention that she's going over to Pacifica's house. It's not a good idea. 

“Pacifica Northwest is the _worst,_ Mabel! You can’t go over to her _house,”_ Dipper says, with the disdain he can only muster up for bullies and rich people, “Even if it is really nice.”

“It’s really nice because she’s _rich,”_ Stan says.

“And she’s rich because her family _lied,”_ Dipper reminds her, but Mabel sort of rolls her eyes.

“Pacifica didn’t do that,” she says, “her family did.”

“Pacifica did act like a jerk to you, though,” he says, “ _multiple_ times.”

“I think that she’s getting better,” Mabel says, and she does believe that, “I just think that I should give her another chance.”

“Grunkle Stan,” Dipper says, “tell her that this is an _awful_ idea.”

“If Mabel thinks that it’s a good idea,” Stan says, “then I think that she should just do it”

“No, no,” Dipper says, “Mabel should not _just do it-“_

 “Just like make sure to steal some of their fancy soap with gold flakes in it,” Stan says, interrupting Dipper’s angry tirade. Dipper doesn’t seem happy about this either.

“I’m not going to s _teal_ from Pacifica,” Mabel says, and then she fully processes what her Grunkle said.

“Golden soap?” she asks.

“The Northwests are loaded, kid,” her Grunkle says, and then Mabel realizes something.

“How would you know if the Northwests have golden soap?” she asks.

“There’s nothing they can prove,” he says, and it’s so thoroughly Stan that Mabel just laughs. The conversation turns away from her and Pacifica, and to the Shack’s next big event and the last freaky thing that Dipper found in the woods.

 

The Northwest Manor is actually just a ten minute walk from the Shack, so Mabel packs a backpack and grabs a pillow and then walks over on her own. (Before she’s able to do this, though, she has to Dipper tell her multiple times about what a terrible idea it was to go in the first place.) She knocks on the gate, and eventually is lead to the front door by the butler. She’d almost forgotten how absurdly wealthy the Northwests really are. Pacifica greets her at the door with a half-smile, and leads her through the mansion to what Mabel assumes is her room. It seems more like a large, extravagant hotel suite, though.

 “Okay,” Pacifica says as she sits down on the couch next to the bed. Mabel sits down beside her, and expects Pacifica to say something. She doesn’t. They sit in awkward silence for a solid minute and a half before Pacifica does end up saying something.

She sends Mabel a look that’s almost shy and asks, “What do you do at a sleepover?”

“Anything,” Mabel says, and then she decides that’s not quite right.

She corrects herself, and says, “Everything.”

“That doesn’t answer the question,” Pacifica says, and Mabel rolls her eyes.

“Well, we _have_ to have a pillow fight,” Mabel says, “and eat tons of junk food, and watch movies and play board games and go running around at like three o’clock in the morning and-“ Pacifica grins, and hits her lightly in the stomach with a pillow.

“You sneak,” Mabel says, and then she runs to grab her pillow off the ground. She slams it into Pacifica’s side, and thus the valiant pillow war begins. They race through the Manor, swinging pillows and jumping on furniture, while Pacifica screams about which items they are not allowed to break. Mabel learns that there is not a single object in the manor that they could break. They explore the elaborate, gorgeous rooms and the ones that are dusty and forgotten, desperately stabbing in all of them alike.

 

It’s almost two hours of adventuring and intense pillow battling later when they fall back into Pacifica’s bed.

“I can’t believe that your parents didn’t notice,” Mabel laughs, as she tries to regain her breath.

“Oh,” Pacifica says, and there’s a hint of a blush on her cheeks, “my parents aren’t home.”

“Oh,” Mabel says.

“They’re almost never home in the evenings,” Pacifica says. She doesn’t really sound bitter about it, more resigned. She’s accepted that this is just a fact of life.

“I’m sorry,” Mabel says.

“Don’t be,” Pacifica says, “things are easier when they’re gone. I’d never be able to have someone over if they weren’t gone all the time.”

“Wait?” Mabel asks, “they don’t know that I’m here?”

“Nope,” Pacifica says with a sly gleam in her eyes, “we’re doing this under the radar.” Suddenly, Mabel feels like a super-secret spy, and that’s exactly what she suggests they play. She drags the other girl all around the manor as they look around corners, and try to catch the nefarious “Albino Panther”. They find every crack and crevice in the manor, and eventually make their way back to Pacifica’s room.

 

They fall into Pacifica’s enormous bed, laughing and panting in equal measure. Mabel thinks that Pacifica’s bed must be something bigger than king-sized, and neither she nor Pacifica take up very much space. The bed feels much too big for the two of them. They can sprawl out comfortably, and could probably add another two or three kids to the mix without being uncomfortable.

 

“So,” Mabel asks, stretching out a little bit bigger on Pacifica’s royal purple bedspread, “Why did you invite me over?” Mabel’s never been a subtle person, and she gets even less subtle after midnight. She thinks that it’s around three o’clock when she asks the question.

“It’s my birthday,” Pacifica says, “and well, I’ve just-“ her voice has started to crack, and she tries to regain her composure.

“I thought it would be fun,” she says.

“It is,” Mabel assures her, but then she remembers Pacifica’s parents.

“They left you alone on your birthday?” Mabel asks, and she can hear her own horror creeping into her voice.

“They always do,” Pacifica says.

“Did they even throw you a party?” she asks.

“Of course not,” Pacifica says, “ _this_ is my party.” She smiles at her, and Mabel finds that she’s incredibly glad she agreed to come. Then, Pacifica lies down on her pillow and closes her eyes.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Mabel shouts, “We aren’t done yet!” If this is the only birthday party that Pacifica is going to get, Mabel’s going to make it the best party that anyone’s ever had. Pacifica shoots up, and then looks at her in confusion.

“We haven’t even told ghost stories yet!” Mabel exclaims.

“Well, I have one of those,” Pacifica says in a hushed, conspiratorial tone. She tells the tale of a ghost that set a curse on her family’s Manor, one that is due to come true in a year’s time.

“But you can’t tell anyone,” Pacifica whispers, and Mabel mimes putting a key to her lips and locking them.

“What was that?” Pacifica asks.

“I just locked my lips,” Mabel says, and Pacifica sends her another strange look. She doesn’t comment though.

“Okay,” Mabel says, “that was good, but I think that I can top it.”

“Really?” Pacifica asks skeptically.

“Yes,” Mabel says with a wide grin. Mabel tells her all about their trip into Stan’s mind.

 “You did _not_ fight a demon,” Pacifca says skeptically.

“Did so,” Mabel tells her, “we beat him with the power of imagination.” She considers mentioning their more recent run in with Bill, but the “Bipper Incident” still seems too personal to talk about. Maybe she’ll tell Pacifica about it next time.

“That sounds made up to me,” Pacifica sing-songs, but it sounds more teasing than mocking.

“Come on,” Mabel says, “you were almost murdered by the little people that live in the mini golf course, and you think that a demon is unbelievable?”

“Good point,” Pacifica says, and she’s actually laughing about the memory.

“We should go mini golfing again sometime,” she says, “without the competition. Just for fun.”

“Alright,” Mabel says, “just as long as you’ll be alright when I kick your butt.” She grins at the end, teasingly.

“Not if I kick yours first.” Pacifica says. They stay up late into the night, giggling about supernatural stories and bad movies. It’s different than Mabel’s sleepovers with Candy and Grenda, but she finds that she likes it just well. Maybe even better.

 

As she falls asleep, she hears classical music in the back of her head. Instead of imagining her soulmate, Mabel just thinks of Pacifica.

* * *

 

 

They wake up in the morning. _Okay_ , Mabel admits, _midafternoon is probably a better description_. When she finally peals herself off of Pacifica’s bed, the clock reads 2:17. Mabel proceeds to freak out. She’d promised her Grunkle that she’d be back by noon. She lets out a horrified little scream. Pacifica rolls over and groans, and then Mabel can’t help but scream a little bit more.

“Mabel?” Pacifica asks, forcing herself to sit against her gorgeous, oak headboard, “you alright?”

“Grunkle Stan’s going to kill me,” she mutters.

Pacifica sends her a look of complete and utter confusion as she asks, “Why?”

“I promised him I’d be back at the Shack by noon,” she says, and then she gestures violently towards Pacifica’s clock.

“Oh yeah,” Pacifica says, with an awkward little laugh, “it’s definitely past noon.” Her hair is in complete disarray, and her bangs seem to be pushed up against her face. Somehow it looks cute on her, though. At least Mabel thinks that it does. Mabel snaps herself out of her little, crush-related internal monologue, and starts gathering up her things from Pacifica’s enormous room.

“This was really nice, Paz,” Mabel says quickly, as she shoves her sweater into her backpack.

“Paz?” Pacifica asks, a confused look passing over her face.

“Oh,” Mabel says, “it’s a nickname.”

“A nickname?” Pacifica asks.

“Yeah,” Mabel says, “friends give each other nicknames.”

“Alright, then,” Pacifica says.

“If I’m Paz,” she says, and then she pauses a moment to think, “Then you can be Mabes.” She grins a little at the end, and butterflies race through Mabel’s stomach. When Pacifica smiles she looks like she’s radiating sunshine. Mabel wonders how bright it would look if she smiled all the way.

“I like it,” Mabel says and then she gives Pacifica an awkward thumbs up. Paz giggles, and Mabel’s heart does a somersault. Mabel decides that since she’s already running incredibly late, that Stan can wait another few minutes. She takes her backpack off, and grabs a pen and paper out of them.

“Why do you even have that?” Pacifica asks her, but Mabel scribbles the number to the Mystery Shack on it and then shoves it into Pacifica’s hand.

“Call me the next time that you want to hang out, okay?” Mabel says. Pacifica looks surprised. Mabel’s not sure she knows what to say.

“I had a lot of fun,” Mabel says, as she puts her backpack back on. Mabel opens up Pacifica’s door, and then waves one more time to a speechless Pacifica.

“Bye,” she says, and then she starts to make her way through the Manor. She doesn’t do so too quickly, though, because she would prefer to put off meeting her fate.

 

Grunkle Stan is angry, but Dipper is _livid._ He somehow decided that the Northwests had invited her over solely to sacrifice her to some demon that they traded souls to for wealth.

“Dipper,” Mabel says, “that’s the most ridiculous thing that I have ever heard.”

“You were two hours late,” he says, like that’s all the explanation he needs for the paranoid conclusions that he jumped to. Mabel supposes that it’s enough explanation for Dipper.

 

Paz calls her later that day, and Mabel’s almost afraid that she won’t be allowed to answer the phone. But Grunkle Stan’s cooled down by seven thirty, and Mabel answers and they talk for almost an hour. She calls the next day, and the next day, and by the third day they decide to hang out. Then, they hang out almost every day for the next month. It takes Candy and Grenda a while to warm up to her, and even longer for Dipper to, but eventually they all realize that though Pacifica’s not perfect, she’s good for Mabel. That’s all any of them really care about.

 

For three weeks straight, Mabel has Disney love songs stuck in her head. She wonders if her soulmate will hate her for her crush on Pacifica. She wonders if _Pacifica_ will hate her for her crush on Pacifica.

* * *

 

 

A few weeks before the end of the summer, Mabel comes back over to the Northwest Manor. Pacifica leads her back up to her room, like she did the first time. This time, though, Mabel notices something sitting by Pacifica’s bed. She thinks that it looks like a violin case, and Mabel’s heart does sort of acrobatic move that frankly makes her feel a bit sick, but also terribly excited.

“Do you like classical music?” Mabel asks.

“Um, yes,” Pacifica says, “I play the violin.”

She points casually to the case as she continues, “Like, my parents made me do all of these cultured, snobby things when I was little because I was supposed to be perfect, but I actually really liked that one.” Pacifica sits down on the edge of her bed, and Mabel can feel a big, sunny grin spread across her face. Pacifica sends her a confused look, and Mabel just grins wider.

“Mabel are you-“ and then a look of recognition passes over her face.

“Wait,” she says, “you asked because you heard classical music in your head, didn’t you?” Mabel sits down beside her, and grins.

“Yes,” Mabel says, and she isn’t embarrassed to admit it. Pacifica’s face turns bright red.

“I can’t believe that I didn’t realize it sooner,” she says. Paz buries her head in her hands.

“Wait,” Mabel asks, “why?”

“I had that stupid song about Stan being wrong stuck in my head for _weeks,”_ she says. Mabel blushes a little at that. She knows that Pacifica has grown up with her incredibly annoying array of songs playing in the back of her head, and she feels a little bad about that at the moment.

“Sorry about that,” Mabel mumbles, but when Pacifica looks up from her hands she doesn’t look angry. She looks _happy._  

“I’m glad that it’s you,” Pacifica says softly. The elusive, full-teethed smile that could light up the entire galaxy appears and shines its light on Mabel. Mabel feels her heart melt. One of those Disney songs that she loves pops into her head, and she finds that it’s fitting.

_And at last I see the light,_

_And it’s like the fog has lifted_

_And at last I see the light_ , Pacifica’s voice adds

_And it’s like the sky is new_

Mabel focuses intently on the next lyric, hoping to form a duet. She doesn’t know if it’s possible, has never heard of someone trying, but she thinks that she ought to at least try.

 

_And it’s warm and real and bright_

“It works!” She thinks excitedly, as she can hear both of their voices melding together in a sweet duet.

_And the world has somehow shifted_

_All at once, everything looks different  
Now that I see you _

Pacifica grabs her hand, and squeezes. Mabel giggles, and kisses her on the cheek. Pacifica blushes, and Mabel gives her two thumbs up.

“Who has two thumbs and the world’s best soulmate?” she asks with a shit-eating grin.

“Oh my god-“ Paz mutters, but Mabel just laughs.

“It’s me!” she says, “Mabel Pines!”

“I take it back!” Pacifica says over-dramatically, “I’m not glad that it’s you.” Mabel just laughs and Pacifica ends up laughing too. She’d imagined this moment a million times, but none of them even started to compare, because none of them were with Pacifica.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos make an author smile, but comments make an author squeal and blush and giggle happily (I'm telling you that you should leave comments) 
> 
>  
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own "I See the Light" from Tangled.


End file.
